Search This Blog

One Stop shop for Daily Digest - News, Views and analysis of the political developments of the Horn of Africa. Now you can follow by email alerts situated at the bottom. Please feel free to forward any item of interest - it is your blog too (Make it your Home Page)

Conservative leadership race: First round of voting to begin

Image captionFive candidates are hoping to succeed David Cameron as Tory leader and UK prime minister

Conservative MPs will begin the process of choosing their next leader and UK prime minister, when the first round of voting gets under way later.

Theresa May goes in to the ballot with a lead among Tory MPs.

But energy minister Andrea Leadsom, who won Boris Johnson's backing on Monday, Michael Gove, Stephen Crabb and Liam Fox also hope to succeed David Cameron.

Party members will choose from the two backed by most Tory MPs, with the winner due to be named on 9 September.

'Car crash'

The Conservative Party's 330 MPs will vote in the first round of the election between 11:00 BST and 18:00 BST, with the results expected at about 19:00 BST, when the poorest performing candidate will be eliminated.

Further rounds will take place on Thursday and the following Tuesday until two candidates remain.

On Monday, Mrs May, the home secretary who campaigned to stay in the EU, was out in the lead among her colleagues, with the declared support of 115 MPs - about 35% of the parliamentary Conservative Party.

Among her backers are former supporters of Mr Johnson, including cabinet minister Liz Truss and former shadow home secretary David Davis.